Birth
by LZClotho
Summary: Regina's pregnant and no one believes it's Emma's, including Emma. But the women's troubled relationship and tie through Henry means Emma has stayed around. When Regina goes into labor, it's up to Emma to deliver the baby.
1. Birth

**Anonymous asked: Birth**

_._

Regina rubbed her lower back and then passed a soothing hand over her protruding abdomen with a smile lost in a mix of memories and wishes. The baby in her womb should have never been possible for at least a dozen different reasons. However, the top two were why she smiled since the first moment she had learned.

She had been told, as a young woman, that she could never bear a child. The devastation came after Leopold's albeit unwelcome advances hadn't produced a child in the first year. An old midwife had broken the news to her after the humiliating examination. Terrified of the dreams of murdering Snow already crowding her sleepless days and nights, Regina had been almost relieved. But as the years wore on, first the woodcutter's children, and then young Owen, the urge to mother had grown until she'd begged Gold to find her a child. He'd brought her Henry. And she'd thought there could be nothing greater.

However, the second, and more astonishing reason she had smiled upon learning of her pregnancy, was the indisputable revelation that this had to be a child of true love. Regina hadn't slept with anyone but Graham since coming to Storybrooke — until Emma Swan and a cold bedroll where they'd commiserated and comforted one another regarding their lost son.

Melding their magic to save Henry had saved his life — and created a new life. Even if Emma never believed, it was enough that Regina knew the truth.

Regina winced as the baby twisted and she remembered trying to share the good news with Emma. She cupped her hand over the baby's kicking feet and rubbed in soothing circles. "All right, I'll let us both nap for a bit," she promised, making her way slowly up the staircase in her mansion.

Henry was in school and then, afterward, headed to the stables to meet up with his grandfather, David.

Ruby was due by with Regina's takeout from Granny's around 6 pm. Regina would sigh, then smile whenever the craving hit — a burger piled high with onions and mushrooms and swiss cheese, smothered in gravy. It was so Emma Swan that it left Regina with no doubt who had 'fathered' her baby.

* * *

Emma rang the doorbell at 108 Mifflin as she held a bag of Granny's takeout. Ruby had pressed it on her when the diner was suddenly packed just as the waitress had been preparing to take the meal to the mansion.

_"Run it over for me, please?" the waitress had wheedled. Emma rolled her eyes._

_"I'm not even going that way," she protested._

_"Your patrols start over that end of town every night," Ruby had replied knowingly. _

_And she did know, Emma sighed, finally accepting she was going to have to see Regina._

Flutters of both anxiety and anticipation battled for control of her stomach and Emma pressed her free hand against it. She drove by this place every patrol route, at least three or four times a night, looking up at the second floor windows — the one that remained on until nearly two or three a.m. regularly. She often saw Regina's silhouette pacing, had watched the silhouette grow over the months, until Regina was often arching her back, pressing away pain with every step.

Emma had constantly battled the desire to leap at the trellis and scramble up it into Regina's bedroom and soothe away every ache, every pain… She remembered all too intimately the feel of Regina's body curling into hers in Neverland. The feel of lips mutually kissing away worried tears under the darkness of night.

The sound of her name on Regina's lips whispered reverently as she came undone with Emma's touch…

Fuck, Emma thought, feeling miserable. She knew what Regina was going through. Alone, pregnant, wondering what to do next, what would happen…

"God damn it!" Emma exploded, balling her fist as she slammed her hand against the front door. She hated what Regina Mills made her remember, what she made Emma feel… "Regina, open the door!"

There was no answer. Emma raised her fist again, but this time, she shoved not flesh, but magic, at the entry, and it shimmered and vanished.

"Regina!" Emma strode into the foyer, swinging the takeout. "Got your dinner from Granny's. I'll just leave it in the kitchen and you can get it later."

The silence following Emma's pronouncement lasted until she had her hand out to rematerialize the vanished door. A whimper reached her ears. She froze in place, turning to stare up the staircase from where, she knew, the sound had come.

"Regina?" Emma's heart raced. She knew that whimper. It was pain. It was worry. It was Regina.

Another whimper, closer to a sharp cry this time, poured adrenaline into Emma's body and she bounded for the staircase, grabbing the railing and leaping upward past the first several steps. Her boots would barely land on a step before they were leaving it for another. She was at the second floor landing in four leaps. "Regina!"

"Em…?" Regina's voice was broken by a gasping breath. "Em…ma?" The woman was panting. Emma raced toward the sound. Regina's bedroom door stood half open.

Reaching out, Emma was terrified what she would find. Had someone come to the house, taken advantage of Regina's limited mobility and taken revenge? Would she find Regina laying in a pool of blood, dying from some mortal wound? Damn it, why had she ever left the woman alone? She knew better than anyone that enemies don't just give up and go away. She should have doubled, even tripled, patrols here. She should have demanded Snow and David order the rest of the town to leave Regina alone.

"Regina?" Emma's voice was a mere murmur now. Her palm contacted the door, and it was strange but she felt every fiber of the wood grain sliding against her skin, and suddenly heard her own hard breathing in her ears. "I…"

Emma stopped, frozen in place once more. Not by a sound, this time, but by a sight.

Regina was on the bed, rumpled sheets balled in her fists. The pain painted her face in scrunched patches of red and the tendons of her neck and arms were in sharp relief against her drenched naked skin.

The roundness of her belly was distorted and Emma realized why when Regina, eyes squeezed shut, screamed out incoherently and pulled at her knees to either side of her belly, Regina was in labor. Hard labor.

Emma took in the entirety of Regina's body in seconds, from the lank sweaty hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead, to the splay of her legs and the already widening center of her, and the dark short hairs covering her womanhood. Then Emma realized that was not all Regina.

"The baby's coming," Emma gasped aloud. She ran into the adjoining bathroom, starting the bathtub's warm water, and grabbing every towel in sight. Her thigh banged into the sink and she looked in the cabinet underneath, giving a small sound of victory when she came up with a first aid kit. She'd need the alcohol swabs.

When she returned to the bed, Regina was wide-eyed, staring at Emma, her hands wrapped around her calves. Emma patted a wet handcloth against Regina's temple.

"Emma?" There was a breathlessness to Regina's voice.

"Yeah, I… was bringing your dinner." Emma backed away. "Here," she laid a dry towel over Regina. "You're going to get cold." She glanced toward the no longer visible space between Regina's legs. "How long? You didn't call anyone."

Regina bit her lip and threw her head back, clearly pushing her way through another contraction. "No one to call," she said, finally, breathing heavily with every word.

Emma swallowed. "I'll help."

"Don't nee—" Regina's voice pitched upward as she experienced another contraction.

Grasping one of Regina's hands on her legs, Emma squeezed it. "OK." Regina's hand squeezed hers through yet another contraction. Emma lifted the towel and examined Regina's progress.

One of Regina's hands weakly tried to push away Emma's head. "Em…" Brown eyes were filled with tears when Emma glanced up. Emma gave a sad twist of her lips to acknowledge the situation and straightened back up. "I've got some warm water. I'll be right back."

Emma soaked and twisted out one of the towels in the warm bathwater, then returned to the bed. She set it out between Regina's legs and grasped the woman's ankles. When Regina struggled, Emma slid her hands up soothingly along the calves. "All right. Now, I don't think there's much more. The baby's head is already crowning. You'll want to bear down steadily through the next contractions. Keep pushing."

Regina nodded. Emma bit her lip in the middle of her answering smile. Regina's eyes were doe brown in this moment meeting her gaze. Even sweaty hair sticking to her face, she was a stunningly beautiful woman.

The moment the final contractions began, Emma knew. She could see the glaze of pain wash out brown eyes, now almost obscured with tears. Regina squeezed her eyes shut, and Emma reached forward with the warm wet towel.

A tiny body slipped free of Regina's and Emma wiped away birth matter. Once the baby was turned onto her back, Emma noticed the sex immediately, the squalling began. She started to lift the baby onto Regina's belly. The woman had fallen back against the pillows and sheets.

It wasn't until she was trying to extricate her pocket knife to cut the cord that the baby's eyes, face pressed against Regina's belly, opened. Emma was trying to hold the baby steady with one hand while fishing in her tight jeans pocket for the knife with the other.

The baby's eyes were softly colored in the low light, and Emma realized with a start they were green. Not a vague blue, but unmistakably green. Emma's green. She'd only met two other people with those green eyes. Her father, David, and her son, Henry.

The knife fumbled from her fingers with the realization. Regina groggily opened her eyes with the sudden motion of the bed as Emma scrambled to retrieve the knife.

"Eh… Emma?"

"Hey," Emma's voice was choked. "I… Just hang on. We need to get the afterbirth, and I… I've got to cut the cord." She swallowed, her throat almost too full of emotion to speak. "You, uh… you okay?"

"Is she okay?" Regina asked instead.

Emma stroked over the baby girl's back and pulled Regina's hand onto it as well. "Yeah. Yeah, she's okay. She's okay. She's… fine. She's beautiful." She watched Regina's hand splay across the baby's back. Tears soon obscured the sight and she swiped at them with the back of her arm. Regina gave a small grunt and murmur, but her lips unmistakably turned up in an exhausted smile.

Gathering herself together, Emma wiped her knife down with several alcohol swabs. Studying the cord for a panicked second, she suddenly remembered she'd need to tie it off. Quickly she bent over and pulled her boot laces out, hands shaking. Finally she tied off the cord and cut through it with the pocket knife.

"Regina," Emma coaxed. "You've got to push once more."

Regina strained, half up on an elbow, and Emma felt the rippling of muscle where her hand rested on Regina's belly. The placenta slipped free on the next contraction and Regina grunted with exhaustion. Emma folded the towel around the afterbirth and moved it aside. She'd have to get Regina and the baby to the hospital to make sure it was all out, and there were no complications.

Emma brought another clean, warm damp towel between Regina's thighs and wiped gently, cleaning her up. Regina stirred. Emma rubbed her belly soothingly. "Sorry."

Regina said nothing, her eyes drifting from Emma to the baby on her belly. She moved her hand slightly on the baby's back.

The newborn girl whimpered. Regina's hand was joined by Emma's, rubbing warm, soothing circles softly on the silk-smooth skin. The whimpering turned to barely audible breaths and then an unmistakable sucking noise.

Emma met Regina's eyes as they both realized the baby was trying to turn her head and root to suck at the skin of Regina's belly. "I think she's hungry," Emma said. "You… you wanna try…?"

Regina's legs settled together on the bed and she struggled to sit up with the baby still on her belly. Emma lurched forward to plump pillows. The gesture wrapped both her arms around Regina's shoulders and she found herself pulling mother and baby against her in a tight embrace.

"Em?" Regina murmured. She sounded tired.

"Um, I'm sorry. I'll…" Emma moved away and finished, businesslike, covering her own emotional mess, and settling Regina's pillows. "You… uh, got it?"

Regina lifted the baby girl to her chest, resituating her fidgeting form so that she rooted first at the side and then found the nipple. Regina gasped suddenly.

"Regina? What happened?"

"Um, she found what she wanted," Regina said sheepishly. She lowered her head to place a kiss atop dark wisps of hair, then nuzzled the baby's temple with her nose. The sounds of the baby girl sucking gradually filled the room.

Emma closed her eyes and fell slowly, reverently, a petitioner for penitence, to her knees on the floor beside the bed. Her arms supporting her chin, she opened her eyes and gazed at mother and baby. "Wha… what's her name?"

Regina's gaze slipped benevolently over Emma's. She lifted her near hand to caress a lock of Emma's hair behind her ear. "I hadn't decided. I thought we might… together?"

Emboldened by Regina's touch, Emma lifted one hand from beneath her chin and reached out toward the baby's cheek. With the back of a fingertip she stroked the satin skin. "I… it's really not… I didn't think my life was supposed to happen this way, y'know?"

Regina nodded. "Yes, dear. I… I know."

Emma looked at the baby's contented face and closed eyes and light dusting of dark hair. "Jenna," she said softly.

Regina looked from Emma's face to the baby's head and nodded after a moment. She lowered her lips to the girl's forehead and pressed her lips there softly. As she pulled away, she murmured in confirmation, "Jenna."

Emma's hand slipped over the top of Regina's on Jenna's bottom. "You… I… I owe you an apology, Regina," she said.

"No, no apologies."

"But all these months… I thought you were lying to me."

"I know."

Emma pulled away from the tenderness she didn't feel she deserved shining from Regina's gaze. She'd been horrible, leaving Regina to fend for herself for all this time. "We should probably get you and Jenna to the hospital, have Whale check you out. Make sure everything's okay." She was going to fix that now. Do everything necessary, and right, by Regina and Jenna.

"Emma," Regina started, then paused with an exhale as Jenna released her breast. "It's all right." She shifted Jenna to her other breast. The position was a little more awkward, but eventually Jenna once again settled to nurse.

Emma had said nothing as she watched the most beautiful, natural act she'd ever witnessed in her life. And how beautiful was Regina as she did it?

"You… you okay if I call… Henry?" Emma wanted her whole family around her suddenly. Henry needed to be here. Needed to know it was going to be different, for all of them.

Regina looked up from brushing a finger along Jenna's cheek and watching the girl nurse and nodded. "He's at the stables with David."

"Well, he should know he's a big brother," Emma said.

"All right."

Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, dialing quickly. She heard David answer the call and exhaled. "Um, David, could you bring Henry home? Regina's house. Yes. It's time for… a family meeting."

She closed the call and returned the phone to her pocket. "He'll be here soon."

Regina was looking at her with furrowed brows. "Family meeting?"

"Yeah. We're family, Regina."

"Are we, Emma?"

Emma hesitated. She'd felt so confident. Maybe Regina didn't want Emma as part of her life. Yeah, so she'd helped name the baby, but Regina hadn't exactly ever said that she wanted Emma in her life, after Emma rejected her the first time.

"What do you want, Regina?"

"What I've always wanted, Emma. My happy ending."

Emma looked from Jenna, already dozing in Regina's arms, to Regina. "Will you settle for a broken Savior, who's going to keep making mistakes, probably forever, about nearly everything?"

"I don't settle for anything." Emma's face fell. Regina asked suddenly, "Would you take Jenna, please?"

Emma reached out and gingerly collected Jenna, wrapped in her towel, from Regina's arms. Even as Emma backed up, Regina pushed herself off the bed and got unsteadily to her feet.

Emma looked panic-stricken from Jenna and her completely occupied hands, desperate to reach out a third arm if she'd had one to steady Regina, even as Regina's hand came to rest lightly on Emma's forearm wrapped around Jenna.

The brunette leaned across Jenna, lips a breath away from Emma's. So close she made Emma close her eyes or risk going cross-eyed.

Then warm breath and words brushed Emma's lips. "Emma, I want and need _you_, mistakes and all."

Emma let herself linger in the kiss Regina pressed to her lips, closing her eyes, tears squeezing out from beneath the lids.

"I'd better get into a dressing gown before your father arrives with our son," Regina said when she pulled back slowly. Emma opened her eyes and before her stood Regina, nude body with new plusher curves freshly flushed by pregnancy.

"That would probably be best," Emma replied unsteadily though she had tried to choke back the lust that would have buckled her knees were it not for the baby she held preciously in her arms.


	2. Chicken

**Anonymous asked: Chicken (this one is gonna be cool, cause there are sssooo many ways that that canbe worked with... so excited. :))**

_Here's the results of your prompt anon. This is also a continuation of my previous mini-fic "Birth."_

**Chicken **

Emma was just transferring Jenna to Regina's arms when the front door downstairs could be heard slamming open. Adrenaline flooded her veins, tensing her muscles and she looked around quickly analyzing objects for their defensive weapon potential.

_ . Thomp-thomp. Whomp._ Rapid, heavy footfalls that made it sound like an army was coming resounded on the staircase.

Emma grabbed a floor lamp.

Regina gasped. The bedroom door flung inward. Emma shouted and swung the lamp like a fighting staff.

Metal and glass shattered and bent against the forearm of… David!

"What the—!" David darted his other arm out and stopped the forward rush of the smaller figure beside him.

"Henry!" Regina shouted with surprise.

Emma's eyes darted from her father's face to Henry's. "Mom!" the boy shouted then pushed his grandfather's arm aside and rushed forward.

Emma stared as Henry brushed hard past her and rushed to Regina. "Kid!"

"Mom," Henry said, eyes only for the brunette on the bed. "Are you OK?" He drew to a halt in front of Regina, his gaze searching her body intently. Then he tentatively reached toward the towel-wrapped bundle in Regina's arms. "Is she OK?"

"She's OK. We're both all right, dear," Regina's voice was gentle, reassuring as she leaned into her son's arms going around her shoulders and enfolding her and Jenna.

Emma stared in bewilderment. David moved alongside her.

Henry was cooing to his new sister, smiling big and brushing lightly on her dark fluffs of hair.

"You knew," Emma said. "You knew, didn't you?" she demanded of him. He'd been so happy coming here, staying here, while Emma had been fighting with herself for months.

Henry turned to Emma, his arm staying around his mother's shoulder. "Yes, I knew."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Emma knew her anguish was plain, but she was at sea here, shameful of her actions, ignoring Regina, disbelieving the woman. She felt like she had abandoned the woman, as she had once been abandoned, and that would never sit well on her mind.

"Because you'd have believed me, but not her. You were a chicken, Emma," he accused. "My mom needed someone who would be there for her. Not someone who would run away because they couldn't believe." He stopped when Regina put a hand on his on her shoulder.

"Even after everything that's happened," he added after a moment, "You find it so hard to believe."

"Henry," Regina started.

"Kid, my life —"

Henry cut her off. "I know. I _know_, OK? But you're still afraid it will all disappear. This is Storybrooke, not Brigadoon," he added ruefully.

Emma's eyes filled with tears. Her bottom lip quivered.

"Henry." Regina moved her hand, pushing off Henry's arm. "It's all right now," she looked up into her son's face looking down into hers.

"She accepted the baby? She accepted _you_?" he asked more intently.

"She knows Jenna is hers," Regina said.

Henry looked at Emma. "Do you? Do you really believe?"

Emma slowly lowered to her knees on the floor, as she had earlier, now between Regina and Henry, looking up into both their faces. She put a hand on Henry's arm and Regina's knee before answering.

"I believe, Henry. I'm not going anywhere. Not anymore. This chicken has come home to roost."

"Emma?" David's voice sounded strangled and he cleared his throat as all three looked at him. He was pale, his eyes wide, his jaw half open, eyes darting between each of them. "Regina's baby is…?"

"Is mine," Emma affirmed. Her hand slipped from Regina's knee to the towel covering Jenna. "She's _ours_." His shoulders slumped. "Would you like to meet… your granddaughter?" Emma asked.

He didn't move for the longest breath and then he nodded almost stupidly, a funny jerk-shake of his head. He was clearly still processing the impossible news.

Emma, with Henry guarding her, lifted Jenna from Regina's arms, offering a reassuring smile to the brunette with a twitch of her lips, and then turned to her father. He took a stumbling step forward. Emma moved the baby aside in case he should fall. When he righted himself and reached toward the bundle, she brought Jenna forward once more.

The baby blinked up at him — Emma's eyes — and his face broke. He was once more a brand new father — Emma's father — having her thrust into his arms, to send her away. Tears poured forth.

"Oh god," he murmured, so full of pain. "I'm so, so sorry." He said it over and over again. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

He pulled Emma into his arms, baby Jenna snug between their bodies and he cried into Emma's shoulder, as she pressed her face, crying too, into his chest.

Henry helped his mother to her feet, holding her up around the waist as she walked to Emma's side. Emma sensed Regina's presence and stepped back from her father. Regina reached across Emma's body and adjusted Jenna's towel.

David stepped backward and nodded, wiping at his face. "Regina," he said quietly, no reproach in his tone.

"David," Regina replied, and Emma heard no malice, no derision in the address, only quiet pride.

After a moment of meeting his daughter's gaze, David dipped his head in acknowledgement and withdrew. He pulled the bedroom door closed quietly behind him and they were all silent as his footfalls departed down the stairs, out the front door, and that door closed behind him.

Henry walked around in front of Emma and Regina.

"You really OK?" he asked again. He was looking at Regina.

"Yeah, Kid," Emma answered. She leaned her head against Regina's on her shoulder and both of them looked down into Jenna's blinking face. "Yeah, we're gonna be fine."

A flash made Emma look up. Henry was just lowering Regina's phone. "A memory," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, Kid." Although, Emma didn't think she'd ever forget this day. She passed Jenna to Regina's arms and wrapped her own arms tenderly around the brunette's waist, resting her chin on the fine boned shoulder to look down into her daughter's beautiful green eyes. "Yeah," she murmured.

Henry beamed and snapped another picture.

In which Regina was smiling.


	3. Blanket

**mparadoxalpoised asked: Blanket... In continuance from "Chicken"? *wet Bambi eyes batting eyelashes***

Hey, iamparadoxalpoised. I finished up this for you. I hope you enjoy!

_Summary - The arrival of Snow…A continuation of "Birth" and "Chicken" in the verse of magic!baby for SwanQueen. _

_Author's Question: Do things still qualify as ficlets if they are 1898 words?_

**Blanket**

Henry snicked the bedroom door into place as Emma waited uncertainly in the corridor holding Jenna in her arms. "Now Mom's asleep I think we should put Jenna down, too," he said, sounding a certainty that belied his eleven years.

"So, where to?" Emma asked. Henry waved her to the next door on the same side as Regina's room. The door was ajar, and he pushed into a sunshine-filled space, stepping aside so Emma could enter with Jenna.

The walls were the first thing Emma noticed. They weren't Regina's usual black and white motif. They were the palest green. The window drapes were a slightly darker green shade, pulled open with soft linen strips of matching green. The window faced the front of the house and the late afternoon sun poured its rays into the space. Tucked beside the window was a black oak rocking chair, cushions in the same pale green.

Stepping inside, Emma noticed the tiny wardrobe, also in black oak, with the wide surface, prepared as a changing table. Next to it stood a bassinet in matching wood, the frame shaped like a flower basket on a swing. Regina had obviously been well-prepared to take care of Jenna all by herself. Emma exhaled out the shame. She wanted to make up for lost time so badly.

There was, however, one thing life had taught her. There was never any going backward. You could only make better choices going forward. At least hope to, anyway. She looked down at the bundle in her arms and noticed Jenna was fast asleep.

"You sleep now, Jenna," she murmured, pressing her lips to the baby's forehead before placing the baby in the bassinet, its basket swaying slightly on the swing-like arch.

Henry leaned on the changing table and looked into the bassinet. "Mom wanted the light in here to be good, like she knew the baby would be."

Emma swallowed. "Yeah, isn't some of this your stuff from when you were little?"

"No. Hand-me-downs isn't really Mom's style. My baby stuff's in the attic. She said it's mine. For whenever I have kids." He laughed softly.

"I hope you're planning to wait a while for that to happen, kid." She patted his shoulder. "Did she know she'd have a girl?" she asked Henry, fingering the green curtains. _Green, huh, Regina_, she asked silently. _You really did believe_.

"She didn't _want_ to know, but I think she guessed kinda early," Henry said. "It's not like there were any boy parts involved in this, y'know?"

Emma blushed. "What the heck do you know about how babies are made, kid? You're eleven."

"I've known since I was six, Emma, when Mom told me I was adopted." Henry's face fell at his own words. "I… I really wasn't very understanding about that."

"Why would you be mad at her? I always was so angry at my parents for giving me up. Even when I had a rough time in foster care, I was more angry at my parents."

"Because she was so similar to me." He pushed at his dark hair, which Emma admitted, was a lot like Regina's. "I thought she was lying, and I couldn't figure out why she would say she wasn't my mother."

"That's messed up," Emma said, reaching out to soothe Jenna who was stirring. "I guess we better let somebody sleep." She straightened and was going to the curtains to darken the room when the doorbell sounded downstairs.

Looking out past the curtains, Emma noticed David's truck at the curb. She sighed. "It's David. And probably Mary… Snow."

Henry hurried out of the room. "I'll let them in before they ring again and wake someone."

###

Her parents. Emma's hands dampened at the thought of seeing them. They had been working on their relationship since Neverland, both supportive of Emma's rejection of Regina's news that she was pregnant with her child. Now that Emma knew the truth and would be taking care of Regina and Jenna, would the relationship slide backward once again?

David and Snow had remained in opposition to Regina, continuing to push Emma about taking Henry and going back to the Enchanted Forest. Snow was still looking to become pregnant herself. Emma couldn't count the number of times she'd listened to Snow talking about her fertility. She had appreciated every call from the station in those moments. "Gotta take this," she had said. She had stopped adding "Mom" to her statements somewhere around the fourth month. It went without remark.

Footfalls sounded on the staircase and Emma turned from the window to face her parents.

"Emma?" Henry's voice was quiet, knowing as he did that Jenna slept in the room.

She crossed the space and opened the door. "Yeah, kid, I'm still here."

"She all right?" Henry asked.

"She's sleeping," Emma replied softly. Her gaze tracked from Henry's face to Snow's, following up the woman's hand and arm that rested on Henry's shoulder. "Snow," she said quietly. It was cautious.

"Emma," Snow replied, tone just as cautious. "David said —"

"Yeah," Emma said, cutting her off.

"I thought I should… see you," Snow said.

"Yeah, I'm here."

Snow winced. "There are ways, Emma…"

Emma struck a hand crosswise through the air. "No. Regina didn't lie. I was wrong."

Snow's eyes went round and her lower lip quivered. She inhaled and took her hand from Henry's shoulder. "So it…"

"_She's_ beautiful. _We_ named her Jenna," Emma declared firmly.

"So.. the baby… is a girl?"

Emma nodded. Snow tried to look past Emma's shoulder. She moved aside. "She's sleeping right now," Emma said quietly.

Snow took a hesitant step forward and stopped again, her gaze taking in the room. Emma saw her mother's eyes fill with tears, then saw the jaw firm. Only one tear escaped the iron control suddenly slamming down over Snow's face.

Emma stepped in front of Snow and blocked further entry. It's then she realized that Snow has something in her hands. It's… it can't be, but it looked remarkably like… She's still staring at it when Snow noticed that her eyes were no longer on Snow's face.

Snow pulled the object out of view, but then hesitantly returned it to the front of her body. "I, uh," she stutters. "It's a blanket. Like…like yours." Emma found her hands full of the soft hand-crocheted blanket. She fingered the purple ribbon. "Purple is for royalty."

"You can't have just made this," Emma said. She looked over her shoulder toward Jenna's bassinet. "Are you giving this to me?" she asked, to be clear.

Snow looked at the bassinet and then back to Emma's eyes and nodded.

Emma walked away from Snow, reaching into the bassinet. She left the towel Jenna had been wrapped in since birth inside and instead tucked the new blanket around the tiny body and cradled her daughter, now yawning and stretching as she wakened.

Snow stepped forward. She tucked a dragging tail of the blanket inside and glimpsed the face of the baby. The tiny face was scrunched up in a yawn, eyes closed, thin dark hair sworled atop her head. She looked at Emma worriedly.

Nudging her daughter's cheek, Emma cooed, "C'mon, kidlet."

Snow watched her daughter's finger slip over the rounded cheek and then the scrunched face smoothed out, jaw working in a mimic of nursing, and when Emma's fingertip slipped over the pert little nose, wide eyes opened. Snow fell back at the sight of green.

"She has beautiful eyes, doesn't she?" A voice spoke from the doorway.

###

Snow turned and saw Regina leaning on the doorframe. In a dressing gown, the brunette looked so rumpled and tired eyed that for a moment, Snow's jaw fell open. But then she lifted her chin and closed her mouth.

Before she could speak, Snow was startled by Emma's sudden movement.

"Regina." Snow's daughter left her side and gallantly put out an elbow, which Regina took, then Emma led her to the rocking chair where she sat. Regina gathered Jenna to her chest in the blanket as Emma settled the baby into her arms. The baby moved restlessly and Emma and Regina behaved as if they have forgotten Snow was even present.

The sense of dismissal rankled and the pain goaded Snow. Snow felt the pull down on her lips watching Emma lean in. Emma brushed Regina's cheek with her lips then the top of the baby's head. Then Emma righted herself and turned to Snow.

"It's time for something to eat," Emma said. "You staying?" she asked.

Snow was bewildered by the request. She shook her head, eyes darting from Emma to Regina and back again. "No, I… I can't … don't… don't do this, Emma. Please."

"I'm headed down to the kitchen. Regina needs something to eat." Snow felt outside her body hearing the comment, as if it had been spoken to someone else. Not her, certainly not Emma's mother.

"No," Snow said firmly, finally. Then she rushed out of the room, fled down the stairs, and didn't pull up until she slapped both hands against the door of David's truck. Impact with the metal stung her palms and broke the dam holding back her tears. David was at her side in an instant.

She turned into his chest, feeling his arms come around her back and feather through the nape of her hair. "David!" she cried out. "It's really true!" Her voice broke with her anguish. Regina had not only taken Emma from her as a baby, but was now raising not one, but two, children when Snow had raised none.

###

Emma stared at the empty space where her mother had stood. Rejection washed through and weakened her muscles. She leaned on the frame of the door to support legs gone numb. She told herself she hadn't hoped. She hadn't believed it would go any differently. She heard only her mother's voice, in the Echo Cave, admitting to wanting another baby because she was disappointed she'd not raised Emma, disappointed in how Emma had turned out.

"Emma?" Regina's voice threw Emma out of her self-directed thoughts and immediately she returned to Regina's side at the rocking chair.

"I'll get some food and bring it up, all right?"

"I'm all right for now."

Emma searched Regina's face for a moment. "You sure?"

Regina's hand pulled hers from the arm of the chair to the blanket holding their daughter.

"Yes, I'm sure. Sit for a while."

Emma felt antsy, but Regina's hand on hers was soothing, so much so that she looked down to wonder if the woman fed her a bit of suppression magic. But there's only the warmth of skin and contact. She realized then she hadn't even gotten a hug from Snow. Emma pulled a straightback chair close and sat down. Her head propped onto her hands to watch Jenna whom Regina had adjusted to nurse.

Tears stung at her eyes but she could not stop their fall. She dropped her head onto the rocking chair arm and felt Regina's hand slide over the top of her hair.

There was a vague shift in the lighting around Emma but she shut her eyes more tightly rather than lift her head to search it out. The door snicked closed and Regina's hand stilled on the back of her head.

"Henry," Regina supplied, "took another picture."

"Oh."


End file.
